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User blog:Infinikip/Hi-Octane 2.0 Plans
A while ago I brought up the idea of having a "finalized" version of the mod labeled the 2.0 version. Ideally, this version would feature all of the content we've planned since day one, with all of it working the best we can get it to. I like the idea of putting together a specific plan based on what can and can't be done, so that's what I've decided to do here. I've titled this page "2.0 plans", but that doesn't mean these ideas only apply to that one version. Everything here applies to the future of the Hi-Octane mod altogether, for versions before and after 2.0 (if we ever actually get that out). I've just titled it the way I did because the 2.0 version is really the ultimate end goal. Cans and Cannots First off, let's differentiate between what we can and cannot actually do. There's nothing wrong with dreaming up ideas, but before saying we can make them a reality, let's make sure that's actually possible. 'CANS' *Port characters between Cars and Cars: Mater-National, as both games are built basically the same. Cars: Race-o-Rama characters will work as well, albeit without animations. To our knowledge, the only Race-o-Rama characters that will not work are the Lightning McQueen alts, due to the way they're set up -- the wheels and body are separate models, and Mater-National can only read one model for each character. *Port tracks from Cars into Mater-National. It's important to note that races are set up very differently in each game, so we have to set them up the way Mater-National wants them to be set up. *Create new Relay Races for existing tracks. *Add as many new paint jobs as we want. *Add new songs. As per disagreements a while back, we've decided to limit the music list only to what's available in the three games, and we've created tutorials so players can add additional songs from their personal library. 'CANNOTS' *Add anything from Cars 2 or Cars 3: Driven to Win. These games were made by completely different teams at completely different studios, and the filetypes are not compatible between each "era" (THQ era being Cars-''RoR'', Avalanche era being Cars 2-''Cars 3'') *Port events of any type from Race-o-Rama. We only have one tool that can obtain compatible files from this game, and when it extracts them, the names and types are completely different from what they should be. It's next to impossible to sort through everything. The only track from this game that works is one of the Point-to-Point races, which we have already added. *Add minigame types from Cars or Race-O-Rama. Mater-National does not possess the code needed to run minigame types other than those that are in Mater-National. I believe the only thing we could port is Tractor Tipping levels from the first game (can I clarification on that from someone with the first game's files?) *Add anything not found in the three games at all. Meaning completely new character models, tracks, etc. We don't have the tools to create new content. *Make significant changes to story mode. The way the campaign is set up is pretty complex, and it would take a lot of research to figure out how to work new events in. I don't think it's impossible, but it's best to list it here until we research more. I would also like to point out that we have been wrong in the past, and people have figured out workarounds to problems we initially penned as unsolvable. However, it's important not to say you can do something until after you've actually done it. 2.0 Content This lists what we want the 2.0 build to feature, based on everything I explained above. This is what it seems the general consensus for inclusions are: *All characters from all three games made playable. To my knowledge, the only characters that will not work are the McQueen alternate versions, as well as Tractor and Frank. The latter three characters technically run fine, but they have issues that make them not enjoyable to play. Way too big in the case of Frank, and broken handling in the case of Tractor. *All tracks from Cars and Mater-National running perfectly, with no crashes and all textures working right. Additionally, the "Downhill Sprint" race from Race-o-Rama running fine as well. *A vast selection of paints for each character. Ideally all available paints from Cars and Mater-National, as well as whatever we can salvage from the Race-O-Rama file mess (I believe we've already done all that) *Reduce crashes and bugs to an absolute minimum. It's hard to completely eliminate everything, but let's try to make crashes rare and fix all the bugs we can. Recent modders have hugely improved upon the crashing issues, as, in my experience, the most recent version makes the game crash a lot less than it did when I was heading development. Additionally, there are some changes we can make to polish up a bit. These aren't 100% necessary, but would be very welcome improvements *Make position tracker icons for all characters, using the Mater-National format (image of character with a tan outline). I see that we've added icons from the first game to characters that need them, so if someone who is good at photo editing can create a tan outline for those, that would be awesome. *Prioritize paint jobs for characters with few options. (e.g. Lenny, Fred, Rustbucket cars...) *Localize new track names. Currently the displayed names have underscores in them and look messy. To-do list #Check every character has engine/boost noises. #Restore original physics sets for Ramone, Luigi, Fillmore, and Sarge. I think these were accidentally replaced at some point with ones that drastically heighten their top speeds above that of other characters. Alternatively, it might have just been like that in the original game, and just a case of poor balancing? If so, modify physics #Localize Cars track names using HxD #Go through each Cars track and perfect them one-by-one #Try to fix Downhill Sprint. If we can't then we'll just disable it #Re-add unfinished content and characters (Night Drive, Interstate 40, etc.) but disable them. That way all you have to do is modify the EventInfo lists to get unfinished stuff into your game. Category:Blog posts